Anti-Asian Racism and the Rise of Hawkish Mass Opinion in China

Abstract

The dramatic increase in anti-Asian racial violence in the United States during the pandemic has sparked debates on issues of domestic racial justice and deep-seated racism against Asian Americans. Political scientists, however, have paid relatively little attention to how growing anti-Asian racism might affect contemporary U.S.-China relations, especially by shaping foreign policy discourses and public opinion in China. In this article, I investigate the way the Chinese state media discuss the issue and how such top-down discourses shape mass political attitudes and foreign policy preferences in China. Analyzing the Chinese state media coverage of anti-Asian racial violence, I first find that Chinese official narratives frame the issue as a manifestation of both racially motivated American foreign policy and problems with American democracy. By conducting a nationwide survey experiment in China, I then examine the impact of such top-down political rhetoric on public support for hawkish foreign policies. I find that these political narratives significantly boost racialized and nationalist sentiments among the Chinese masses, which, in turn, garner greater public support for hawkish foreign policy. This article contributes to understanding the foreign policy implications of anti-Asian racism after the global pandemic and the potential racialization of Sino-American great-power competition.